Marina international visits The Point

Marina
International School yesterday visited The Point Newspaper to have an idea on
how newspaper production is made in The Gambia, as part of their
extra-curricular activities in school.

Pap
Saine, the co-proprietor of the Point Newspaper gave a brief history of the
newspaper, saying it was established in 1991 with three co-partners, the late
Deyda Hydara, Baboucarr Gaye and himself.

He
said they started with three productions a week and later expanded it to a
daily newspaper, adding that the Point was the only newspaper that has won
three international awards because of their transparent and watchdog role,
press freedom, good governance and ability to promote development through
developmental news coverage.

The
newspaper publishes news on day to day affairs of the country, lifestyle,
health, agriculture, economic and politics in general following the demand of
their readers, he expatiated.

He
also spoke on the challenges of newspaper production in The Gambia, saying that
they depend on adverts to survive, but late payment by advertisers, and
internet or online reading which affects hard copy sales and constant
electricity supply as major challenges.

He
further added that newspaper production has three departments including the
Management, Editorial and Technical department as well as the Marketing
department.

Marketing
is the backbone of the paper followed by the computer section where all the
design is made and website run.

He
added that survival of journalism was a very difficult profession during the
last regime because of the media laws and state-censorship.

Abdou
Aziz Jobe, a French teacher of the school said they are on educational trips
for the students to learn about what was happening beyond the four corners of
the classroom.

They
have had a great experience in newspaper production and hope that journalism
will improve to it required standard in the international level.

He
said the journalists should be left to do their job like any other profession.

Isatou
Demba, a student, said she was glad to know how newspaper production was
carried out especially in the newsroom.

‘Journalism
is an important profession in society but also risky’, she said.

Momodou
Musa Njie, also a student, said that the English department of their school
wants to have clear information on how a newspaper is produced and the
operations of the press.